Josephine Meckseper Designs Oil Rigs In Times Square For 'The Manhattan Oil Project' (VIDEO)

If you're shopping at Toys "R" Us or dining at Olive Garden in commercial minefield Times Square, we're guessing environmentalist concerns are the last thing you'd be reminded of.

But two, 25-foot oil rigs set up by artist Josephine Baker are in place to remind you of just that and more. The New York-based artist unveiled her first public art installation on Monday, smack in the middle of midtown chaos to help call attention to the damaging paradoxes in current American society.

Meckseper explained project titled, "The Manhattan Oil Project," to The Daily Beast:

I really wanted to make works that reflected a sense of reality. Our society and our culture is really defined by the pathology of consumerism, and wasting energy. There’s no clearer picture of the excess of our consumer culture than Times Square, and how it’s being used to distract people from real issues.

Elaborating on the location of the installation, Meckseper said, "The critical placement of the pumps is a conceptual gesture that raises questions about business and capital; land use and resources; wealth and decay; decadence and dependence."

The installation is on view at an abandoned lot space at Forty-sixth Street and Eighth Avenue and runs through May 6.